Jessica Govea Thorbourne -- labor advocate

Tyche Hendricks, Chronicle Staff Writer

Published
4:00 am PDT, Friday, April 8, 2005

Recent photo of Jessica Govea Thorbourne,�a founding organizer of the United Farm Workers union who raised early concerns about the danger�of pesticide exposure for field workers like herself and who died of cancer in�January�at age 58, will be remembered at a memorial service in Salinas on Saturday. Photo: Courtesy of the family less

Recent photo of Jessica Govea Thorbourne,�a founding organizer of the United Farm Workers union who raised early concerns about the danger�of pesticide exposure for field workers like herself and who died ... more

Photo: Courtesy Of The Family

Photo: Courtesy Of The Family

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Recent photo of Jessica Govea Thorbourne,�a founding organizer of the United Farm Workers union who raised early concerns about the danger�of pesticide exposure for field workers like herself and who died of cancer in�January�at age 58, will be remembered at a memorial service in Salinas on Saturday. Photo: Courtesy of the family less

Recent photo of Jessica Govea Thorbourne,�a founding organizer of the United Farm Workers union who raised early concerns about the danger�of pesticide exposure for field workers like herself and who died ... more

Photo: Courtesy Of The Family

Jessica Govea Thorbourne -- labor advocate

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At the age of 4, Jessica Govea Thorbourne began working at her mother's side in the cotton fields of Kern County. At age 12, she was organizing Bakersfield children in a successful push for a neighborhood park. At 19, she dropped out of community college to work for Cesar Chavez's fledgling United Farm Workers Union.

When Ms. Govea Thorbourne died in January in New Jersey of breast cancer at 58, she left a legacy of empowering immigrants and low-wage workers, and calling attention to the dangers of pesticides, poisons she believed were responsible for her illness.

"She had a fire for justice in her that was lifelong," said labor organizer Fred Ross Jr. "She was one of the most courageous people I've ever known."

Ross and other labor leaders -- including UFW President Arturo Rodriguez -- will speak at a memorial service Saturday in Salinas for Ms. Govea Thorbourne.

Born in Porterville (Tulare County), Ms. Govea Thorbourne's earliest exposure to community and political work came from her parents, Juan and Margaret Govea, a railroad laborer and a farmworker who became involved in the Community Service Organization, a precursor to the UFW, under Chavez and Ross's father, Fred Ross Sr.

"Directing your efforts toward the betterment of the larger community is what we grew up in," recalled her brother, John Govea. "To help others is very strong in the family."

Juan Govea -- who had studied music at the national conservatory in Mexico City before becoming a laborer in California through the bracero program -- was passionate about schooling. "My father was all about higher education," said John Govea, "So when Jessica decided not to continue and to be a full-time organizer with the union, working with Fred and Cesar, he was in kind of a pickle."

All five Govea children spent summers harvesting cotton, grapes, tomatoes and peaches. Their modest contribution helped keep the family in food and clothing, John Govea said, but it also had a cautionary function.

"My mother had grown up a migrant, and she made sure we had that experience," he said. "She wanted us to know where we'd end up if we didn't study and apply ourselves."

The work also taught the Govea children about the dignity of migrant laborers and the difficulties they faced. When Ms. Govea Thorbourne became involved with the UFW, she began documenting stories that often coincided with her own experience.

"There was itching and rashes. ... People were coming in with headaches and nausea," said John Govea. "She was convinced it was pesticides because those were symptoms she had felt. It was her persistence in making the connection that brought a little more attention" to the issue.

She suspected her own illness resulted from her childhood exposure to agricultural toxins.

Beginning with the UFW in 1966, Ms. Govea Thorbourne organized a grape boycott in Toronto, led strikes among Salinas lettuce workers, ran union election campaigns in the Imperial Valley and established health clinics along the U.S.-Mexico border. She joined the UFW's executive board in 1977.

In the late 1980s, after Ms. Govea Thorbourne married, she and her husband moved to the East Coast where she taught political organizing.

Another brother, Miguel Govea, a musician in San Francisco, said music was an important part of family life and political activism.

"Jessica was a very good singer," he said. "She was rousing. She used that as a tool in her organizing to get people enthused and ready for something."

She is survived by her husband, Kenneth of New York; mother, Margaret of Bakersfield; brothers, John of Sacramento and Miguel of San Francisco; sisters, Catalina of Oakland and Margaret of Los Angeles; and six nieces and nephews.